"The Pacific Episode 2" Topic

was terrific. I really enjoyed it, plot line is really coming into its own and the story was riveting.

Great machine gun fight.

Simply awesome.

It is great!

I missed episode 1 last week. This week, I made it a point to watch it. As it turns out, I don't get HBO. Can you tell I don't watch much TV?

Yes … I liked it too !!

Enjoyed it greatly. No complaints.

I am hooked.

Nice detail. I noticed a marine carrying a Reising smg.Can you imagine lugging those water cooled Brownings around the jungle?

I assumed when they carried the Brownings over their shoulders the water tank was empty. No?

Question -- when Basilone was in the aid station the doctor said he had 3rd degree burns on his inner forearm. Were those from holding the Browning up in his arms while firing it? Nice bit of detail -- take that, Hollywood!

Yes, the Water Jacket around the barrel would still get very hot during continous firing. Like we saw in both episodes. The Browning .30 cal really saved the day, against those massive Bansai charges.

IMPALA,

You can watch episode 1 on HBO.com for free. They have not placed the second episode up there yet, I hope they do. It is the only way I can watch it.

All the combat scenes were excellent (and this episode was mostly combat). They did a good job of conveying the lack of food, and just how terrifying a charge is at night where they just keep coming.

I still complain there is no character development. Okay, so one of our main leads becomes a hero, using his MG sans tripod or asbestos glove to shoot the enemy. If this were a Rambo movie people would be complaining. I'm assuming this really happened, and this isn't Hollywood. But it did show a determined side of one main character.

They also killed someone off, and I had a hard time remembering if that guy even had more than a couple of speaking lines in the first episode. So I have no clue why our hero is touched by this, any more than seeing any dead marine.

So IMHO two hours in, virtually no character development. It's turning into a well done action flick, but it's not a patch on Band of Brothers.

Twenty minutes in on Saving Private Ryan and I knew a LOT about Hanks and his squad. A diverse group of guys with distinct personalities. We're 120 minutes in and we know almost nothing about our leads.

kyoteblue: The asbestos glove had been misplaced, so that's how he got the burns on his left arm.

Thanks for explaining; I must have missed it when that was mentioned.

Yes, they briefly showed the glove when they were setting up the MG in position. But unless you read about it or in my case was a Grunt you may have missed the whole thing. Even today an M60 MG is issued with an asbestos glove for quick barrel changes, etc. …

That too !!

"Twenty minutes in on Saving Private Ryan and I knew a LOT about Hanks and his squad."

Really? Twenty minutes into SPR we knew the Americans had landed on the beach, Tom Hanks was an officer, there was a sniper who prayed and Tom Sizemore collected dirt. That sums up all the character development there. It took about half the movie to get a good sense of the characters.

I guess, I'm not so hung up on "Character Development" as I am on accuracy and realism …

I am hooked.

One reason that we know so much about the characters in SPR & Band of Brothers is that we've watched the episodes dozens of times.

I'm sure that as we watch and re-watch The Pacific, the same will happen.